GUARDIOLA FEARS SACK IF REAL MADRID BEAT MAN CITY

MANCHESTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he could be sacked if he fails to beat Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League..

City have won five major domestic trophies since Guardiola took over in 2016—including two Premier League titles and an historic domestic treble last year—but have never progressed past the quarter-final stage of the Champions League since the Spaniard’s arrival.

Former European champions Real Madrid await in the last-16 this season, with the first leg to be played later this month, and Guardiola said he is keen on getting his hands on the trophy he last won with Barcelona in 2011.

“I want to win the Champions League,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “I dream (of it) and I’ll enjoy preparing for Madrid...this process, two weeks before, will be the happiest moments of my profession, to imagine what we can do to beat them.

“If we don’t beat them, OK, come the chairman or the sport director and say, ‘It’s not good enough, we want the Champions League, I’m going to sack you’.

“(I would say) ‘OK, thank you, it was a pleasure’. I don’t know (if that would happen). It has happened many times and could maybe happen.”

City’s hopes of winning the Premier League title for a third consecutive season have faded in recent weeks with leaders Liverpool 22 points ahead of them.

Guardiola, however, does not think their season has been a complete failure. “You say the season is a disaster but if you win the Champions League it will be exceptional. Why? It’s difficult to win it,” he added.

“If you don’t, we can say in more than 100 years of history (there) were 100 failure seasons for Manchester City. That’s not true.”